Page:Notes and Queries - Series 10 - Volume 3.djvu/323

 s. in. APKIL s, 1905.] NOTES AND QUERIES.

263;

The father was a friend of our family, and as a boy I was fond of going to his chambers, 5, King's Bench Walk, for a chat with him just about fifty years ago. What strange things happen ! I did not even know K. S. Charnock then, nor for some years after his father died and now I am writing a notice of the son. Who could have foreseen such a coincidence ?

The father lived a lonely life in his chambers in a basement in.the Temple, where he died ; the son also lived a lonely life in the obscure lodging in which he died.

The father married his cousin, and one of the children was very weak and another a cripple. The latter was clever at wood-turn- ing, kc., and I still have some draughtsmen he made. My mother, who had been reading Combe's ' Constitution of Man ' (ray father did not trouble himself about heredity), used to point a moral to me on the undesirability of near relations marrying : how surprised she would be to hear that R. S. Charnock had lived to be eighty-four ! The father was not so successful a traveller as his son. I recollect his saying that he had never been abroad, and had determined to go to Italy. In less than a week he was back. It was not necessary to ask the reason he had been so punished by mosquitos that he was almost unrecognizable.

It seems to me very i-emarkable how many lawyers (i.e., attorneys and solicitors) have obtained some amount of distinction in litera- ture or some walk of life other than that of their own profession. An instance presents itself to me in M. H. Bloxam, who wrote 'The Principles of Gothic Ecclesiastical Architecture,' the first book of the kind, but there have since been several imitations, the best known being Parker's 'Introduction to the Study of Gothic Architecture.'

Nevertheless, though the clergy (Crock- ford's 'Clerical Directory') and the doctors ('The Medical Directory') have each yearly biographical dictionaries, lawyers (barristers and solicitors), under the blighting influence of the 'Law List,' have none. Yet I believe they could show a record not inferior to the other professions.

than his son had for his education. Moreover, his eldest daughter, born about 1818, is still living. I fancy an attorney had then to be articled for seven years, and this agrees with the year 1820, when his name first appears in the 'Law List' as a solicitor, which I presume could not have taken place before he was twenty-one. I do not know the exact date when the time for a barrister was reduced from five to three years, or an attorney or solicitor from seven to five.

As with H. S. Ashbee (see 9 th S. viii. 460) v it has been left to foreigners to recognize- Charnock's services to literature and his, original inquiries, all much too little noticed both here and abroad. The chief recognition, is that of the University of Gottingen, which - conferred on him the degree of doctor of philosophy.

The only book of reference in which I find some biographical particulars is 'Men of the Time,' first in 1875, repeated in the last edition, 1895, before it was merged in ' Who 'a Who.' But he is unknown to 'Who's Who,' J where I find many more fashionable men, who have done less. Nor is he in Barwick's ' Pocket Remembrancer,' with its 30,000 names, ancient and modern, up to 1903.

Dr. Charnock had been unwell for several years. On my return -after some weeks' absence I called at his rooms, when I was. told that lie had died a fortnight before, on. 2 March. Hence the short notes that ap- peared in the press on the 17th ; but there had been no announcement. There was not a relation nor a stranger who had enough care for him to do this little office. I do not say this reproachfully; it was his own fault.. He passed away peacefully, unnoticed and unknown, in the house in which he had lodged for some years, No. 30, Millman Street, attended to by strangers. For their long attention he has left them a handsome- legacy, and relatives and friends are not forgotten among the numerous legacies he- left, his property being about 10,000^. in value.

Notwithstanding his legal education, in his. desire to be generous, the legacies in his will are for a larger amount than he had to give, though he frequently made fresh wills, the last being dated in 1898.

The following works are entered under his. name in the Catalogue of the Library of the British Museum :

Guide to the Tyrol, Pedestrian Tours during the Summers of 1852 and 1853. 1857.

Local Etymology. 1859.

Verba Nominalia. 1866.

Ludus Patronymicus. 1868.

Ancient Manorial Customs, Tenures, Sec,, in. Essex. 1870.

Patronymica Cornu-Britannica. 1870.

Glossary of the Essex Dialect. 1880.

Prffinomina : Etymology of the Principal Christian-. Names of Great Britain and Ireland. 1882.

Nuces Etymologic*. 1889.

He edited Anthrojjoloyia for the London Anthropological Society (1874-6), and papers contributed by him to it, to the Journal of the Anthropological Institute, and to the Transactions of the Philological Society, were-.